PATIALA: All the pomp and show of the Sangrur Lok Sabha byelection campaign couldn’t lift the voters’ turnout in Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s own native village Satauj beyond 43%.
Out of the village’s 2,648 total votes, only 1,153 were polled on Thursday. Satauj is in Dirba assembly segment, while the CM represents Dhuri, which had the least turnout of 33% after Lehra’s 32%, by 5pm. At Dhuri’s Benra village that Mann had adopted in 2014 after becoming MP for the first time, the turnout was 44%. Of its 3,643 total votes, only 1,634 were polled.
Benra villager Simranjit Singh claimed that: “Yes, Bhagwant adopted our village but left it ignored, or it should have become a model village by now. One could see our lack of enthusiasm at the polling booths and guess the result.” The parliamentary seat’s nine assembly segments are Lehra, Dirba, Sunam, Bhadaur, Barnala, Mehal Kalan, Malerkotla, Dhuri, and Sangrur. The overall turnout was 36.4%, while Malerkotla had the highest figure of 41.26% followed by Dirba’s 40.58%.
The voting started at 8am and Muslim-dominated segment Malerkotla had only 1.6% turnout till 9pm before gathering speed and beating all segments. Malerkotla had very few BJP booths where Muslims had opposed a now-suspended BJP spokesperson’s remarks on Prophet Mohammad. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) candidate Simranjit Singh Mann had joined this protest during his campaign. Confident of AAP’s third victory in a row, party candidate Gurmail Singh said he could gauge it “by the workers’ enthusiasm” in the evening. He said: “The voters saw our three months of performance and told us they were satisfied. They want an end to the mafia.”
